Pleasure Boating on the Thames

Pleasure Boating on the Thames traces these changes through the history of the firm that did more than any other on the waterway to popularise recreational boating. The River Thames above London underwent a dramatic transformation during the Victorian period, from a great commercial highway into a vast conduit of pleasure. Pleasure Boating on the Thames traces these changes through the history of the firm that did more than any other on the waterway to popularise recreational boating. Salter Bros began as a small boat-building enterprise in Oxford and went on to gain worldwide fame, not only as the leading racing boat constructor, but also as one of the largest rental craft and passenger boat operators in the country. Simon Wenham’s illustrated history sheds light on over 150 years of social change, how leisure developed on the waterway (including the rise of camping), as well as how a family firm coped with the changes brought about by industrialisation – a business that, today, still carries thousands of passengers a year.

During the Victorian period the river Thames underwent a dramatic transformation from a great commercial highway into a vast pleasure-stream. This book traces these changes through the history of the firm that did more to popularise pleasure boating on the waterway than any other. The firm of Salters' began as a small boat-building enterprise in Oxford and went on to gain worldwide fame, not only as the leading racing boat constructor, but also as one of the largest rental craft and passenger boat operators in the country. This history sheds light on 150 years of social change, how leisure developed on the waterway (connected with the rise of camping), as well as how a family firm coped with the changes wrought by industrialisation.